


The Unusual Adventures of Anthea

by afteriwake



Series: All Of Time And Space [35]
Category: Doctor Who, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Big Bang Challenge, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-24 05:19:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/630858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six months ago Anthea left to travel with the Doctor. Today she is brought back to Mycroft's home, unconscious, and he wants to know what she's been doing since she left. This is the story of Anthea's adventures with the Doctor and those close to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fanmixes and other art](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6822244) by [monkiainen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/monkiainen/pseuds/monkiainen). 



> Written for [journeystory](http://journeystory.livejournal.com) over at LJ. It includes Wholock rewrites of "Asylum Of The Daleks," "Night Terrors," "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship" and "The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe." I really enjoyed writing this and it was a bit of a departure from my usual storytelling style. I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> There is an absolutely lovely fanmix **[here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6822244/chapters/15574162)** by **monkiainen** that was done for the challenge for you to enjoy as well!

Mycroft was…not exactly upset, but not pleased, either. Anthea had gone off with the Doctor, spent the entire day and the next with him, and then come back and said he’d asked her to come aboard as his companion and she’d agreed, and so she was extending her resignation. The next time he had seen her was at his niece’s wedding. Melody, or rather River Song, as she was constantly referred to as, had hit it off with Anthea from first introduction and had had no objection to her accompanying the Doctor on his travels. She had seemed to be happy to be there, and he had wondered if he’d lost her for good.

It was now some time later, just around six months or so. She had sent the occasional letter, made a phone call once or twice, and sometimes his brother and sister-in-law spoke of times with her, but generally he had heard nothing from her. He’d gotten a new assistant, who was nowhere near as capable but did the job well enough, and he had carried on. After all, his life did not stop simply because the person he trusted most had decided to go on a jaunt around space and through time. No, his life carried on. It wasn’t as good as it had been before, and that was what he missed most of all.

His new assistant wasn’t at his home this particular morning, so when he heard the doorbell ring it was up to him to answer it. He had not been expecting any company for at least another hour, and he was surprised at the interruption. He made his way to the door, opening it. There on his doorstep was the Doctor, holding an unconscious Anthea in his arms. “Good thing you answered. I almost turned around and went to your brothers, but she wanted to come here,” the Doctor said. “Or at least she said she did before she passed out.”

Mycroft moved out of the way and the Doctor stepped inside. “You can bring her to the sitting room,” he said quietly. Then he shut the door and led the way inside his home to the sitting room. He pointed to his sofa and the Doctor laid her down on it. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” the Doctor said nervously. “She was running up some stairs, and then she stumbled and said she couldn’t run anymore. I checked and she has no injuries I can see, nothing like blood loss or burn marks. I picked her up and carried her back to the TARDIS and she said she wanted to come here and then she was out cold.” 

“I’ll take care of her,” Mycroft said with a nod.

“Please, give me a call when she wakes up. Sherlock has my number.” He looked worried, and Mycroft thought to himself that he should be. “She had told me before this that she wanted to come home. I have her things nearby.”

“Bring them here,” Mycroft replied. “I know her flat has been sold, so I suppose she may stay here for the time being.”

“Right,” the Doctor said with a nod. “Thank you, Mycroft.” He turned then and left, and Mycroft went to the chair near the sofa and sat. The only time he got up was to bring Anthea’s belongings into his home and place them in the guest bedroom, and the only time he spoke was to call his assistant and tell her to cancel all his appointments for the day and not to come to his residence until she was instructed to. And then, he waited.

It was perhaps an hour later when Anthea began to stir. He leaned forward in his seat, waiting and watching, and when she opened her eyes he felt a knot in his stomach unclench. They had been close, or at least as close as he allowed any human being into his life, and this period of separation had been hard on him. He still cared for her in some way, probably in a way he didn’t want to think about too much or else it would bring problems and headache and heartache; after all, hadn’t he told his brother a long time ago that caring was a disadvantage? But he knew he cared about her, and knowing she was awake meant she was uninjured. “Mycroft,” she said quietly. “He brought me here. Good.”

“Are you all right?” he asked quietly.

She slowly sat up, stretched her arms above her head, and turned slightly. “I suppose so. I was just so _tired_ and I couldn’t take another step.” She got her feet off the sofa and put them on the ground. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“You didn’t scare me. Worry me, perhaps, but not much.” He looked at her intently. “Your belongings are in the guest bedroom. He brought them here after he delivered you to me.”

“Ah, I see,” she said with a nod. “Thank you.”

“I believe I would like an explanation,” he said. “I would like to know what you’ve been up to since the last time I saw you.”

She smiled. “I’ve had a wonderful adventure, Mycroft. Some bits were terrifying, but on the whole it was very pleasant. Though…” she began, and then trailed off.

“Yes?” he asked.

“I did miss you, at times.”

He blinked, surprised. Having a grand adventure with the Doctor and she missed _him_? That was a surprising turn of events. “Perhaps you should start from the last time I saw you, at my niece’s wedding.”

She nodded. “I can do that. Do you suppose I could get something to drink first, however?”

“I was just having morning tea,” he said. “It’s probably gone cold, so I can make more.”

“Thank you,” she said.

He got up and went to the kitchen and began making the tea. It took some time, and he used the time to steel himself up for the types of stories she would be sharing. He knew some of it would sound outlandish, but if he knew anything about the Doctor then he knew he was capable of far more than the average human could understand. Thankfully, he was not the average human, and he had done his research. When the tea was ready he put the pot, cups and saucers on the tray and carried it all back to the sitting room. He served the tea to Anthea, who took a sip and appeared to relax even more. He took his own cup and saucer and sat back in his chair. “Whenever you’re ready,” he replied, taking a sip.

Anthea nodded. “After everyone left the wedding party, the Doctor and River decided to go to Laxington III, somewhere deep into space, and go exploring. I was invited to come along, and so I went with them. It was an…interesting….experience.”


	2. Chapter 2

River…River is an amazing woman. Strong and confident and brilliant. She’s nearly as smart as her father, and that’s saying something. Usually she isn’t modest about her talents, just like her father, but she does know what her limitations are, which we both know is most likely a skill learned from her mother. Sometimes she tries to exceed them, just to see. Most of the time she knows them and abides by them. I think you’d really like her, Mycroft. Even though she doesn’t use the Holmes name she is a Holmes, through and through. You’d be proud of her, at any rate. She’s on her way to becoming a professor at Luna University. It’s on the moon, and is actually quite a lovely place. 

We went to the planet to look at some ruins there. River is an archaeologist, and she loves exploring things like that. I’ll tell you about Stonehenge later, I promise. This trip, we didn’t go alone. No, your brother and Amy didn’t join us, but some other archaeologists. Some of them were rather…how they could be graduate students I never would have guessed. They probably had loads of book learning, I’m sure, but they lacked common sense. River _told_ them there were dangers on the planet and not to go anywhere in the dark. Did they listen? No, of course not.

I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? I’m sorry. We didn’t go to the planet on the TARDIS, River and I. We went to Luna University first to meet up with the rest of the crew. I was going along as her assistant, and the Doctor was going to meet us there. Said he had a surprise for River he wanted to take care of first. You showed me how to read people very well, Mycroft, and I knew as soon as I was introduced to most of them that if things went wrong not all of them were coming back. I had high hopes for Miranda and Jake, but the rest? Pathetic.

We took the transport directly to the ruins. Faster than light travel. It was almost instantaneous, and I remember I had never seen a more beautiful place. Rainbow hued sky, crystal spires coming out of the ground. Natural formations, too, nothing man-made about them. It was the first time I’d gone to an alien planet so I was definitely wide-eyed, but there was work to do so I couldn’t stand around and take it all in. The race who had lived there built elaborate tombs, but the one for their first king had been hidden. Supposedly the planet had been deserted long ago, and the only people who visited were archaeologists and grave robbers. Another team had reportedly found the tomb but then disappeared. We were there to finish the dig and, if possible, find signs of them.

River is extremely efficient and a good leader. She concentrated on the dig, because she told me that when the Doctor showed up he could concentrate on finding the missing team. It was sort of his thing anyway…give him a mystery or something with no discernable explanation and he’s off to solve it. He likes to fix things. It’s interesting, that she likes to learn and he likes to fix. She had done a cursory examination of the other team’s camps and knew there was no sign of them being attacked and killed there, so she deemed it safe enough, so long as we kept the lights on. And so we started the dig.

It was quite fascinating. I’d never considered a career doing it, and while it’s a lot of work it’s not boring. I was cataloguing things, which is rather like working for you only more interesting. Do not give me that face, Mycroft, it’s true. I know I did more for you than compile lists of things you needed, but I did that an awful lot as well. At least there I was getting to hold priceless treasures that were all strange and unique. And things went well the first five hours we were there, but then River noticed Jamie was nowhere to be found. The dig was put on hold as we went to go look for him.

Miranda was with me and River, Hugo went with Oliver and Tabitha, and Jake stayed at the dig site to monitor things. We searched for two hours and couldn’t find him, and then we found out Hugo was gone as well. He had been with the other search team, and then he was simply gone. We raced back to the dig site, all five of us who were left, and then River used a device on her wrist and was gone. And then I heard this sound, a “vworp-vworp-vworp” and then the TARDIS was there and River stepped out of it, followed by the Doctor. He herded all the archaeologists into the TARDIS and told them to stay put. I asked him if he wanted me to stay as well but then he said companions never stay where he tells them too. I should have told him I was good at taking orders because I’d been taking yours for years, but truth was I wanted to find out what exactly was going on.

River, the Doctor and I trooped out into the forest by the dig site. We searched, going through the terrain inch by inch as best we could. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to help, but it was more manpower than anything else. The three of us were able to cover quite a bit of ground in a short amount of time, and after a few hours all we had found Hugo’s hat. Finally the Doctor got a strange reading and he scanned a tree that wasn’t really a tree. It was a cleverly hidden door. We opened it and went inside and found ourselves in a maze of sorts. The Doctor led the way through and we ended up in an underground cavern filled with all these relics. We also saw some of the kidnapped people in cages, though not everyone.

It turned out that the alien race had simply gone underground, and all they wanted was to be left alone. During the initial dig a few of the scientists had put up a fight when the aliens went above ground to scare them off and had been killed in self-defense, but most of them where still captive. So the Doctor arranged for the scientists to be freed and all of us to leave the planet when more of the aliens came back with the bodies of scientists the Doctor had left in the TARDIS. Miranda and Jake had been brought alive and they said the idiots had left the TARDIS and brought along weapons, and they’d tried to stop them. I thought all hell would break loose but the Doctor took it all in, thinking, and then he vowed to the aliens that no one would bother them again and they let us all go. I had rather thought my first adventure with the Doctor might be my last. I was glad I had underestimated him.

We all got back up to the TARDIS and filed in. The Doctor did something on the control panel and then he said no one would ever bother the aliens there again. After that he dropped everyone back off at Luna University with a stern talking to about the dangers of antagonizing the local population on a mysterious planet. River went with them, saying that there was a lot she needed to tell the people in charge, and she kissed the Doctor quickly and walked off. And then he turned to me and asked me where I wanted to go next. I said I didn’t know and that he should choose.

We went to all sorts of places: Victorian England, San Francisco in the 1960s, and Paris in 2083. I got to meet Leonardo DaVinci and Sigmund Freud and Mata Hari, and so many others. It was like that for about three months, of adventure after adventure. It was wonderful and breathtaking. And sometimes there was danger, but most of the time things went just fine with few problems at all. It was very different than that first adventure with him. But about three months in, something happened and the peace was broken.

\--

Anthea looked at her cup. “I seem to have finished my tea. Is there more in the pot?”

Mycroft nodded. She held out her cup, balanced on the saucer, and he poured her more tea. “What happened next?”

“Daleks.” She paused to take a sip of the tea. “Do you know what they are?”

He nodded slowly. “Aliens that are hell bent on destroying everything that isn’t a Dalek. At least, that’s according to UNIT’s files.”

“It’s very true,” he said. “The Doctor was summoned to the planet where they had resided before he exterminated them, Skaros.” She paused. “A poor choice of words, I’m afraid, but true nonetheless. At any rate, the Doctor was summoned. He did not want to make this trip. He knew it was a trap, and yet he went anyway, and I accompanied him.”

“And it was a trap?” Mycroft asked before sipping tea.

She nodded. “They have humans that they have turned into Daleks. One of them pretended to be looking for her child. She captured us, and took us to the Daleks. There was a meeting of a large majority of all the Daleks in the universe, and the Doctor expected the both of us to be killed on the spot. Instead, they asked him to solve a problem. You see, there are Daleks who are dangerous by their standards. They are housed on a planet, far from the rest of the Dalek race. And the Daleks…they had a problem. Someone on the planet was sending music. And they wanted it to stop.”

“So then what happened?”

Anthea took another sip of her tea. “They fitted us with special bracelets to keep us safe, and sent us to the surface. And we solved their problem.”


	3. Chapter 3

There had been a woman talking to us, when we were on the Dalek ship. She had said her name was Oswin, and she was trapped on the planet. The Daleks had wanted us to take care of the problem, and she was the problem. The Doctor had promised to rescue her, and the Daleks simply wanted us to turn off the force field so they could blow the planet up. Apparently they thought that it was the best solution instead of the Doctor rescuing her and getting her off the planet. Maybe they were just looking for an excuse to get rid of all the dangerous Daleks.

At any rate, we landed in a very snowy area. We were separated, and I went searching for him. Someone else found me first, a man who said he had been on a space cruise that crash landed on the planet. I was cold because I wasn’t prepared for snow, and I followed him back to his downed ship. I had only been there a few moments when the Doctor burst in, telling me I needed to run. I looked at the man who had found me, and he was another Dalek-human hybrid. Apparently anything that landed on the planet would be converted to a Dalek, alive or dead. The skeletons of his companions came after us next, but the Doctor and I got to safety behind another compartment on the ship. It wasn’t until we were safe that we realized the skeletons had gotten my bracelet.

Oswin could see everything on the planet, and she spoke to us through intercoms. She guided us to safety, or at least relative safety. But I began to feel strange. I can’t really describe it. Oswin said the best way to make a Dalek was to subtract love and add hate. Perhaps she was right. I just know I got snappish, even more so then usual. And I felt more anger than I had in a long time, building up inside of me like a slow boiling kettle. The Doctor knew he had to hurry up and fix the problem and get me out of there. So he left me somewhere where I would be safe.

I heard people, though. Walked out into a room and saw them. There was a couple, and a man welcoming me, and a little ballerina spinning in circles. I wanted to be with them, to share in what they were doing. And then suddenly the Doctor was there and he was pulling me back. He said they were Daleks, but I kept trying to tell him that no, they were people, just like me. And as he got me out of the room he took his own bracelet off and slapped it on my wrist. It took a little time for the effects to fade, but when they did I began to worry. I looked out into the room and saw there really were Daleks there. But then the Doctor called me back and said he had found a transporter. He told me he was going to get Oswin and then we’d jump to the TARDIS before the Daleks blew up the planet. He told me to wait there as he fetched her.

You know I can be patient, Mycroft. You’ve had me waiting far longer for things than I had to wait that day. As I waited I thought. I began to wonder if these Daleks were dangerous because they didn’t think of themselves as Daleks. I started to think that they thought of themselves as humans, that they experienced love and hope and all the other emotions that Daleks abhorred, and that was why they were dangerous, because they didn’t hate. I know what it’s like to hate, but I also know what it’s like to love. Don’t look so surprised, Mycroft. I’ve been in love before, but the man I loved was too blind to notice so I gave up. Did I grow to hate him? No, never. I still love him, and I still hope that one day he’ll see that. But that’s not important now.

I don’t know how long I was waiting, but eventually the Doctor came running to the transporter, telling me it was time to go. There was no time to ask what had happened; we were on the planet and then suddenly we were back on the TARDIS. He said he’d piloted us to the Dalek ship, and he stepped outside to talk to them. I hovered at the door and they all said “Doctor who?” over and over, as though they didn’t know who he was. He was smiling when he came back inside, dancing around his console as he threw levers and pushed buttons, and it wasn’t until later I found out why he was so happy and why he came back alone.

The Daleks had gotten Oswin. She hadn’t become a Dalek-human hybrid. The Doctor said they had done a complete conversion on her. But she hadn’t lost her humanity, and she had dreamed up a scenario for herself where she was still human. She fully believed she was human, and when he told her she wasn’t she started to break down mentally. She started to really become a Dalek. To have a delusion of this magnitude broken… I don’t know how she could have coped if she’d been allowed to survive. Yes, the Daleks did blow up the planet, just like they’d promised to. That was their solution. But before she was destroyed, Oswin did something to the Daleks. To _all_ the Daleks, not just the ones on the ship. She caused them to forget about the Doctor, who was their sworn enemy. They no longer knew that they should fear him. That was why he was so happy.

He asked me if I wanted to come home. I told him I needed to think about things, and I retired to my room. I did spend some time thinking, quite a long time. Perhaps a day or two, I’m not sure. I was drained by my near conversion and I did a lot of sleeping. When I was awake I thought. Did I want to come back to London, to my old life, working for you? You’re a good employer, Mycroft, and sometimes the job was interesting. But it wasn’t as interesting as traveling with the Doctor, and in the end it boiled down to whether I wanted to go back to my old life or forge ahead into a new one. I chose to forge ahead, because I didn’t really want to come back.

\--

“But you’re back now,” Mycroft said before taking another sip of tea.

“Yes, I know,” she said with a nod. “Things changed. This happened quite a few months ago, and I had hoped it would be the last time something like this happened. I was wrong, and that made me change my mind.”

Mycroft looked down at his cup. “What was it that happened?”

“If I tell you now it will get ahead of the story,” she replied. “There’s still many more adventures I had. He took me to meet old friends of his, people who had helped him in some way. He also began slowly making sure no one had heard of the Doctor. He began introducing himself as John Smith everywhere we went.”

“It’s one of his aliases. A common enough name, I suppose,” Mycroft replied.

Anthea nodded. “Yes. We visited Madame Vastra, who is a Silurian, and her human maid Jenny in Victorian era London, and we visited a Sontaran named Strax as he settled into his old life as a combat medic on a war-torn planet.” She sipped her tea. “They had helped rescue Amelia and Melody, when they were kidnapped. Strax told him that he had picked up whispers of people who should recognize the Doctor now having no recollection of him. The Doctor said his plan was working.”

“And what exactly was his plan?” Mycroft asked, looking up.

“I don’t know. He didn’t reveal it to me. Your brother might know. They talked quite frequently. He and his wife even joined us for a visit, along with John Watson and some others. The Doctor said he had missed them, and he wanted to see them. It was a good reunion, but I have learned that nothing ever goes according to plan when it involves the Doctor.”

“Exactly what happened?” Mycroft asked, pouring himself some more tea. He offered to do the same for Anthea, and she moved her cup towards him. He refilled her cup, and watched as she took a sip.

“It had been about a month since we had the encounter with the Daleks. He wanted to take all of us to Space Florida. He says it’s his favorite place to go, and he wanted to rescue his friends from a dreary London winter. So we picked up Sherlock, Amelia, John and the others: a woman named Lorna Bucket, who was a former companion picked up during Amelia’s rescue, a man named Mickey Smith, who had known him since his ninth incarnation, and a woman named Martha Jones-Smith, his former companion from his tenth regeneration.”

“I recognize the last two as members of UNIT,” Mycroft said.

Anthea nodded. “Yes. They joined after their travels with the Doctor ended. Anyway, Amelia and Sherlock brought baby Melody, and Martha and Mickey brought their daughter, and we set course for Space Florida for a day of relaxation. Only it didn’t turn out quite as planned.”


	4. Chapter 4

We were in space, on our way to Space Florida, when he got a call on his phone. All of us watched and listened to his end of the conversation and the more he talked the more somber and worried he became. He hung up and said plans had changed and we needed to go somewhere else for a bit. Amelia asked what had happened and he told her that it was a little boy who had called, and he was terrified. He said he would take everyone home if they preferred, but Lorna offered to stay on board the TARDIS with the children while we took care of the problem. So we came back to London, to a housing complex. The Doctor split us all up to go knock on doors to find a little boy named George. Amelia and Sherlock went together, as did Martha and Mickey, and I went off with John while the Doctor went on his own.

John and I knocked on at least fifteen doors before we met up with Amelia and Sherlock. They had knocked on nearly as many doors and none of us were successful. We all got in the lift to go to another floor when suddenly it stopped. I’ve never had claustrophobia before but the idea of being stuck in an elevator is one of my biggest fears. And then suddenly the elevator dropped. I know I screamed, and Amelia and John did too. Only your brother didn’t, but even he looked shaken up. We dropped for far longer than should have been possible, considering the building was only six stories high and we were on the fifth level, and I just prayed we would land and it would all be over.

And then it stopped. Sherlock and John managed to get the doors opened and we stepped out. It wasn’t a basement or anything like that. It appeared to be an elaborate house, but things were off about it. All the food was wooden, and there were things that just seemed out of place. It was nearly pitch black, but Sherlock and John had pocket torches, and Amelia found a lantern that she was able to get to work. We decided that splitting up to explore would be a bad idea, and so the four of us went off to see what we could find out. Suddenly, this creepy looking life sized doll came walking towards us. We managed to go back to the room we had been in and barricaded the doors.

Sherlock did what he does best, taking the facts as they presented themselves and figuring out what was going on. Only as John pointed out we didn’t have all the facts, and we didn’t know where we were, and other than the creepy doll there didn’t seem to be anyone else around. Suddenly there was banging on the doors on the other side of the room, and Amelia went to open them to see Mickey and Martha there and another set of dolls after them. They came in quickly and told us that they had been sucked through the floor. We knew then that wherever we were, it was not London.

Sherlock stood by the door and listened, and after a few moments said he heard no noise from the other side. We opened the door we’d first tried to leave by and began to explore. Sherlock wanted to go upstairs while Mickey thought it would be best to continue on the lower floor, so they agreed to split up. I went with Mickey and Martha as we looked around the lower level. And then I heard a scream. It didn’t sound like John or Amelia, and we rushed back to the base of the stairs to see Sherlock, John and Amy running down them, being chased by a doll. Only Amy wasn’t being careful and she stumbled, and as she did the doll touched her and she froze before changing into a doll herself. It took John and Mickey to restrain Sherlock from going to her, now that we all saw what would happen if the dolls touched you.

Then suddenly the Doctor and another man were there, and we pushed them into the room we had all been in before. We told him what had happened to Amy and he told us that we had been put into the dollhouse in George’s closet, where his parents sent all the things that had terrified him. The Doctor explained that when he tried to get George to face his fears he had banished him and George’s father Alex to the closet. The Doctor said the only way to get out and to get everyone back to normal was to get George to face his fears. You see, it turned out George was a special alien, who had hidden himself in human form and had gone to Alex and his wife and become their son. Alex and his wife had talked about sending George away and his latent powers came though, and to keep from being sent away he tried to be normal by sending the things that scared him away.

The Doctor told us all to go out into the hall, and as we get out there we see the Amelia doll and the other dolls advancing, and the Doctor calls out to George and tells him his father and mother love him and they don’t want to send him away. Then he looked at Alex and told him he needed to reassure his son. Alex said that his son was really an alien but the Doctor said it didn’t matter because he knew Alex still loved George. The dolls kept advancing and we waited as Alex thought things over, and then just as the dolls got to us he said no matter what he loved George and he would never send him away. And then suddenly a little boy appeared, and Alex hugged him and said they were family and that he loved them and then George said he loved his daddy and there was a flash.

In a blink Sherlock, John, Amelia and I were back in the elevator and it opened to the ground floor. Amelia was back to normal, and we got out and saw Mickey and Martha running to us. About ten minutes later the Doctor came walking down the stairs and after fussing over Amelia for a moment he said all was well, that George had conquered his fears and that Alex and George were going to be all right. Then he clapped his hands together and led the way back to the TARDIS. Lorna was disappointed she hadn’t gotten to experience the adventure but John assured her it was best she hadn’t been there. Then the Doctor went to the controls, asked us if we still wanted to go to Space Florida and we answered with a resounding yes.

\--

“It appears that my brother forgot to mention his wife turned into a doll when he recounted parts of that particular adventure,” Mycroft said when she paused.

“So you knew?”

“Only bits and pieces. Amelia delivered your letter to me not that long after they returned. I asked and they told me very little of what had happened. I am not surprised, though; Sherlock cares far more for his wife than most people would assume. Watching her helplessly as she turned into a doll must give him nightmares.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” she replied. She looked at her empty tea cup, and then back to Mycroft. “Do you have something I can eat? Suddenly I feel famished.”

He nodded. “I can make you a sandwich.”

“Thank you,” she said. He rose and she did as well, and when she took a step she faltered slightly. Mycroft was at her side in an instant, offering a steadying arm. She took it, and then blushed slightly. “I feel foolish.”

“You were unconscious for a few hours, and the Doctor said you’d been running before you passed out. It’s understandable.”

“Still, I feel foolish just the same.” They walked into the kitchen, and she let go of him and leaned against the counter as he began making her food. He worked in silence and she watched, and when the sandwich was done he brought it to the table. She managed to walk to the table without assistance, though he did hover slightly behind her. She sat down and ate quickly, but not in a way that it appeared that she was shoveling the food down. Mycroft brought her a glass of milk as well, and sat across from her as she continued to eat, waiting patiently. When she was finished she pushed the plate away slightly and leaned back in her seat. “Thank you for the sandwich.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied with a slight nod of his hand. “Would you like to continue the story?”

She nodded. “After the experience with the dolls, he decided he wanted to have River join us. So we picked her up from where she was residing and had more adventures together. This lasted about two weeks, and between seeing all the happy couples before and then spending time with the Doctor and River I began to rather feel like a third wheel. River noticed, and told her husband she needed to return so she could go back to studying to be a professor. They parted, and we traveled some more, for close to a month, before a call came in. It was from an old friend of his, Jack Harkness, inviting him to a wedding.”

“Whose wedding?” Mycroft asked.

“His. When the Doctor told me who the bride was to be I was shocked.”

“Irene Adler,” Mycroft said.

She nodded. “Yes. The infamous Woman was settling down. So we left for La Jolla in the year 2033 to attend the wedding, and that’s when things started to come to a head. That was when I started to consider leaving the Doctor and coming home.”


	5. Chapter 5

Jack is a very interesting man. All I knew before meeting him was what you had told me: he was a friend of your brother’s, he’d accompanied Irene before she’d disappeared, and that he used to run Torchwood Three in Cardiff. That was barely scratching the surface, I’d found. When I got to their home there was quite a shock. It had been two years for them since the Doctor left them and much had changed. For starters, there were more than two of them. Apparently Jack, despite the fact that he’s immortal, can still have children. They had a daughter who was only seven months old, and Irene suspected she was pregnant again.

We got there a week before the wedding and they opened their home to us. I was a bit distrustful of Irene at first. After all, she knew secrets, and I’m sure she knew some of yours, even if you were never one of her clients. It was entirely possible she knew some of my secrets as well. Despite what you had thought, I did have friends when I was here, and some of them were in government and a few were clients of hers. But if she knew any of my secrets she didn’t reveal them to me, and she had never revealed them to Jack.

She was surprised to see me, because she knew who I was and she thought I was rather important to you. She was more surprised that you had let me go, to be honest, but I am an adult and can make decisions on my own, and I told her just that. She nodded and said that was true, but she had thought that perhaps you were more important to me. I let that go without a comment and we both decided to not speak of our old lives. That made it easier.

She’s changed so much, Mycroft. You would hardly recognize her. No, she’s still stunningly gorgeous, but she seemed so content and happy. She was no longer a dominatrix except to a few select clients, and even then there wasn’t the need to get information to keep herself safe driving her. She enjoyed being a mother, even if she didn’t enjoy the pregnancy, and she seemed to genuinely love Jack. I had wondered how you could love a man who would watch you grow old and one day die and he would never ever age, but she said she didn’t care about that; as long as he was there at her end, she would be happy.

The Doctor extended a trip in the TARDIS for their honeymoon as a wedding gift to them, but Irene declined. Jack had told me her reaction to being shown the stars from the inside of the TARDIS after she had drugged your brother and apparently two years later it still gave her the creeps. The Doctor them offered to get them anything they could want as a gift, and all they asked for was a vortex manipulator, in case they wanted to travel on their own. The Doctor was just a little leery about that, but he trusted Jack so he got it for them. Irene told me afterwards that they wanted it so that when she died Jack could go somewhere that wouldn’t remind him of her. She knew they’d probably use it other times, but sparing her husband pain was the main reason they had wanted it.

The wedding was a grand affair. It was probably the most expensive wedding I’ve seen that didn’t involve royalty of some sort. And at the same time it was rather intimate. They had written their own vows, and I’ll admit I actually teared up a bit as they spoke them. They just seemed so _happy_ together, and I just felt so lonely as I watched. At the end of the day, everyone I knew had someone, except you. The Doctor had your niece, Sherlock had Amelia, Mickey had Martha, John had Lorna and even those I’d met briefly had someone, like Madame Vastra and Jenny. This is part of the reason I avoid weddings, because they always depress me and remind me that I’m not the sort to form long-lasting romantic attachments. It had been the same at your niece’s wedding, though I think it wasn’t as bad that day as it was at Jack and Irene’s wedding.

The reception took my mind off things a bit. I was dressed very nicely and I spent my time flirting with the men there. And Jack’s just a big flirt, so he was flirting with the women and then men and especially the Doctor, though we all knew at the end of the night it would be him and his wife and his daughter going off somewhere together to enjoy their time alone. As the party wrapped up we said our good-byes, and Irene pulled me aside for a more private chat. She said that while things may have changed, given that I had left you all alone to travel, that perhaps I should speak to you and see if you would even want me back when my adventures were done. I think she’d kept her eyes open and found out what had happened to you and a few others in the twenty years she had skipped through. I told her I would think about it.

And I did think about it. We stopped off to visit Amelia and Sherlock and that was when I gave them the letter for you, the second one. I may not have spelled it out in the letter, but I was considering that it might be time to end my adventures and come back home. And that was why I left you the address. I had hoped you would respond but you didn’t, and as time went by I figured you had moved on and didn’t need me anymore. Either that or you had never gotten my letter. But in either case, I decided that I was going to come home soon, and my first stop would be here, to see if you still needed me. I just hadn’t expected it to be the way it happened today.

\--

Mycroft stood and left the room. She continued to drink her milk as she waited, and when he returned he had three envelopes in his hand. He placed them in front of her. The first two were from her; the third was written by him, addressed to her. “I did write. I just didn’t send it out,” he said quietly. “You may read it, if you wish.”

Anthea picked up the envelope addressed to her and pulled out the letter. It was short, and she read it quickly. “You did want me to come home,” she said as she lowered it, looking at him.

He nodded slowly. “Your replacement is simply not as good as you are.”

“Ah,” she said.

“And, perhaps, I have missed your company,” he added quietly, almost mumbling the last bit.

She looked at him in surprise. He never mumbled. And, point of fact, he never missed anyone. When they left, he moved on and forgot about them. “If you had sent this I would have come back sooner,” she said, folding the letter back up and putting it in the envelope. “But you didn’t, so I decided to continue my adventures a little while longer. 

“And what happened next?” he asked.

“He noticed I was sad. For about a month he made it his mission to cheer me up, taking me to all these places and doing all sorts of wonderful things. And it worked, to an extent. When we were in the middle of an adventure I wouldn’t feel sad or lonely, and so he filled my days with them. At one point we went to ancient Egypt and Queen Nefertiti decided to join us. It was rather amusing to watch her stalk the Doctor like he was prey. And then he got a call, and we went to the future and found out a spaceship was on a crash course to Earth.”

“That sounds like something he would try and fix,” Mycroft said.

Anthea nodded. “The Doctor made another quick trip and picked up a game hunter named Riddell, who must be a relative of Lestrade’s because the resemblance is uncanny, and then went to pick up Amelia and Sherlock for good measure. Only it wasn’t Amelia and Sherlock he picked up. Apparently John was visiting and his sister was his guest, and so we picked up John and Harriet Watson instead, and the Doctor didn’t even notice until he’d taken us all to the spaceship.”

“What happened next?”

“Well, there weren’t any humans aboard, save one, and he was a nasty piece of work. But there was something far more precious on board, and someone who wanted the cargo _very_ badly.”


	6. Chapter 6

We stepped off the TARDIS and the Doctor was being his normal self, talking at what seemed like a million miles an hour, and John kept trying to interrupt him to let him know he hadn’t picked up Sherlock and Amelia, just him and his sister Harriet, and the Doctor all of a sudden demanded to know who Harriet was. I’ll admit, I was trying not to laugh at the completely dumbfounded look on his sister’s face. John introduced Harriet to the Doctor, and then he was apologetic and said that for today they’d be his Amy and Sherlock, and John looked just slightly amused by this.

We didn’t realize there were dinosaurs on board at first. It wasn’t until we heard a thunderous sound coming from down the corridor. We ran for cover, which Queen Nefertiti found, and then these two dinosaurs ran by. The Doctor said they looked like velociraptors, and we must have hidden well enough because while we could see them they didn’t sense us. They ran right by, and the Doctor looked absolutely gleeful at the prospect of being on a spaceship full of dinosaurs.

Once the two dinosaurs left, we began to look around more. John found the console first, and his sister and the Doctor went over to it. I don’t know what they did to it, but one minute they were there and the next they were gone. And to top it off, Riddell and Queen Nefertiti were bickering, though with the tone it was taking it could also have been considered flirting. I’d had enough so I told them to stop arguing and start searching. I wanted to find the Doctor and the others before the ship crashed. So we began to explore.

We found a different computer terminal after about ten minutes of looking. It was in a room that looked like it had been used for something involving the dinosaurs, and there were tranquilizer guns there. If I had learned one thing in traveling with the Doctor it’s that if there’s a computer there you look for a way to turn it on. I pressed a button and it turned on, and then I spied an orb that looked like it fit into a circular hole in the mainframe of the computer. I pushed it in and a video message appeared. It was a video log of the aliens who had originally piloted the ship. They were Silurians, the same race as Madame Vastra, and they had taken the dinosaurs off the planet in an effort to save them from the impending ice age.

Queen Nefertiti had the idea to see if there were other aliens around, and I asked for the computer to show us, but there wasn’t. So after a moment’s thought I asked the computer to show us how many life forms were on the ship when it left and how many were on there now. There was a drastic difference. And it was then that I spotted it, the life form in the center of the ship. Before we could do anything else we heard a sound in the hallway, and ran out there only to find the Doctor, John and Harriet riding a triceratops. They were guiding it with golf balls John had in his pocket.

They got off the dinosaur and I told them everything we had learned when these two huge robots appeared with an older man. The man asked if it was true that missiles were headed for the spaceship, and the doctor said yes, and everyone was going to die unless he could get them to head away from the ship. The old man, Solomon, said he would let us go if we gave him Queen Nefertiti. The Doctor refused, so Solomon had his robots kill the triceratops. The Doctor looked like he was going to fight more, but Queen Nefertiti said she would go with Solomon. She went over to him and they disappeared.

The Doctor then led us to the room next to the one where we had been and said he had a plan. He went to a stand in the center of the room and fiddled with some things. I asked what he was doing, and he said his plan was for us to pilot the ship away. He said that it had been designed to be piloted by Silurians from the same gene pool, and he could sonic the controls so that John and Harriet could fly it. I had to admit that was rather brilliant. Then Riddell said that there were dinosaurs approaching and they looked menacing. He’d grabbed two of the tranquilizer guns before we’d been taken to the control room, and I took one. I’ve shot guns often enough, though Riddell looked surprised that I knew what I was doing. He was a bit of a misogynist, I gather. Felt women should remain behind and let the men protect them. I can take care of myself, thank you very much, and I was going to show him that. 

Meanwhile the Doctor told John and Harriet how to fly the spaceship and then he disappeared. But Riddell and I were dealing with six velociraptors, and it was hard work. We’d shoot one and another would advance, and it took more than one shot for them to get knocked out. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, there were six velociraptors twitching on the floor and us victorious. We went back to John and Harriet and then the Doctor reappeared with Queen Nefertiti and said the problem was taken care of. He made sure we were piloting away from Earth and then when we were clear and heading in the other direction he let them stop piloting, and said it was time to take everyone home.

We dropped off Riddell and Queen Nefertiti first. Apparently this adventure had gotten them all enamored over each other, and so at least now I know why she disappeared from history. I hope she had a happier life with Riddell than she’d had in ancient Egypt. Harriet asked for a favor before she went back, and the Doctor let her sit on the edge of the TARDIS as we hovered over Earth. In the whole time I’d been traveling with the Doctor I’d never thought to do this, and John and I stood behind her and looked out. It’s quite a magnificent sight, Mycroft. Perhaps one day the Doctor can take you up there so you can look. Then he took John and Harriet back to 221B Baker Street and he went and apologized to Sherlock and Amy for not bringing them instead. I waited in the TARDIS, and when he came back I told him I wanted to return home. He asked me to let him give me one last adventure, and I agreed. I just hadn’t expected the adventure to end exactly as it did.

\--

Anthea finished her milk after she was done speaking. Mycroft looked at her intently. “You want to hear about the adventure today, don’t you?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, before I joined him on board the TARDIS, he had met a woman in 1938 that helped him after he crash landed after blowing up a spaceship. She had talked about her husband and children, and he felt the need to repay the debt he felt he owed her for her help. He wanted to give them a Christmas to remember, because her husband had been lost at sea. So he arranged for them to visit an old mansion, and he was to pose as the caretaker and I was his assistant. To be quite honest if I was a child and I had been invited there after the Doctor fixed things up, I would have had a splendid Christmas. The biggest surprise was hidden in a box in the living room, near the Christmas tree. And it ended up being a surprise to the Doctor that almost blew up in his face.”

“How so?” Mycroft asked.

“Children are curious by nature, little boys even more so, and the little boy who was a member of the Arwell family, Cyril, was probably the most curious boy I had ever met. And he wanted to find out what was in the box very badly.”


	7. Chapter 7

Cyril snuck out of bed the first evening they were there, Christmas Eve. I thought I had heard something but brushed it off. That was my fault entirely. Lily, his sister, had snuck out of bed too, only she went to the attic and spoke with the Doctor. It was them that I heard as I was doing my rounds, and I looked into the room to double check and that was when I saw Cyril was missing. The Doctor and Lily had had the same idea, and we all went off to search. When we got downstairs we saw that the large present was opened.

I didn’t think anything could surprise me, not after traveling with the Doctor for nearly half a year, but when I looked inside I saw that there was a whole other world there, an old forest full of ancient trees. The Doctor said the box was covering a portal to the safest planet in the universe, and that it was _supposed_ to have been a Christmas Day surprise, but now we had to go in and find Cyril. So we climbed into the box, all three of us, and began following the footprints in the snow.

There was an egg type thing, broken near one of the trees, and from that point on there were two sets of footprints. One was obviously Cyril’s, and the other wasn’t human. Lily asked the Doctor if he was sure this planet was safe and he said yes, absolutely positive, though he did admit that there shouldn’t have been anything walking around the forest on two legs that hatched from an egg hanging off a tree. He told me to stay there and see if Cyril came back. He told Lily to stay with me and she refused, so off they went.

It was perhaps ten or fifteen minutes later when their mother Madge came through the opening. She was wide-eyed and shocked and then demanded to know what was going on. I tried to explain it as best I could, but then I hadn’t quite understood the Doctor’s explanation. I told her what I knew: we were on a safe planet, Cyril had wandered off into the forest and the Doctor and Lily had followed. She asked why I stayed behind and I told her I’d been told to wait in case he came back. She said that was utter rubbish; if her son had gone exploring it was better to search for him than to simply wait. So she started walking, following the footsteps, and I followed her.

We walked and walked, and I noticed that the non-human footprints got bigger as we moved. Madge noticed too, but she was so determined to find her children that she let it pass with little comment. We had gone walking for maybe an hour when three people in containment suits came upon us. Two pulled out guns and demanded to know why we were there. I started to speak but Madge began to talk. They didn’t believe her story, or at least the one in charge didn’t. The other two did, though, and they lowered their guns. 

They argued amongst themselves for a bit, about whether they should shoot us or not, and then Madge began to cry. And at just the moment when they all dropped their guard she pulled a gun out of her robe pocket. I had to admit, I was impressed. Then Madge demanded they take us to their base, and it was a huge machine on two legs. They explained that they were there to check for life forms before the entire planet was destroyed. We had only minutes until an acid rain was going to fall on the planet, destroying the trees. Madge told them she needed to find her family, and the woman in the group set up the controls to locate other life forms. Then before they could explain how to pilot the machine they were gone, and we had five minutes to get to them.

Madge got behind the controls and I swear, I have never had a bumpier ride. But we managed to get to this tower in the middle of a field, just as the rain began to fall. We hurried outside and ran to the tower, throwing the door open and dashing inside. There were so many stairs, and whatever the acid rain was doing to the air made it hard for me to breathe, even inside the tower. Madge and I ran up the stairs and saw two wooden statues, one of whom was holding a circle. They were advancing on Lily and Madge got between them and her daughter. The Doctor said for her to allow the statues to put the circlet on her head. Madge looked at him, then moved to the chair in the center of the room, and the one holding the circle placed it on Madge’s head. Suddenly the sky outside filled with all these glowing lights, and then the lights came into the tower. I made it to the Doctor, and told him I didn’t feel well. I told him to bring me here, and that’s the last thing I remember before I woke up on your sofa.

\--

Mycroft looked at her closely. “You seem to have been through a lot in the time you’ve been gone.”

“Yes,” Anthea said with a nod. “I enjoyed most of the adventures, even when my life was in danger. It was thrilling, freeing. Even exhilarating at times. But, towards the end, I began to get homesick. I knew it was time to leave him.”

“And what do you propose to do now?” he asked. “Go back to your old life?”

“Perhaps,” she said. “But…I had thought perhaps I might go back, if I had some company.”

“And who would this company be?” he asked quietly.

“You. You’re not too old or set in your ways yet, Mycroft. You could still enjoy yourself on an adventure or two.”

“I am needed here,” he said.

“He can bring you back so it’s like you never left. He did that for Sherlock and Amelia, when Sherlock went to rescue her.” She reached over and hesitantly placed a hand on his arm. “I know you feel as though you can’t go because of your responsibilities. But, perhaps just once, you should let yourself have an adventure. Your life will be better for it.”

He looked down at her arm. “And afterwards?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“If I go on an adventure with the two of you, will you come back and resume your duties as my assistant?”

“Will you answer a question for me first?”

“Perhaps.”

“Did you want me back because you missed me, or because my replacement is not as capable as I am?”

He continued to look at her hand. “For both reasons.”

“Very well. If you come on an adventure with us, I will come back and resume my duties with you, though I suppose first I will have to find a new place to live.”

“You may stay here for a while, if you would like,” Mycroft replied, finally looking up.

He was rewarded with a wide smile. “That will be fine, Mycroft.” She squeezed his arm and then moved her hand away. “Why don’t I call him and tell him I’m awake and well, and see if he will come get us?”

He nodded slowly. “Very well.” He watched her pull her phone out of her pocket and pull up a contact. Then she put her phone to her ear and waited. He only half listened to her conversation to the Doctor as he thought about why he was agreeing to this. If going on an adventure meant she would come back into his life…well, then he was willing to do that. He just hoped it wasn’t the death of him.


End file.
